Breakfast of Champions (1999)

I don't understand why this movie is so misunderstood. It is a dark comedy, but very dark. I think most viewers were either looking for: A- A comedy, but this film is more absurdist and tragic than out and out comedy...--or-- B- A regurgitation of the novel.Now I have not read the novel, nor have I read any of the author's book - yet...I will now, based on Breakfast of Champions. No movie will ever include enough of a book to satisfy the viewer, for the simple fact of time...A 30 page short story usually translates into a 90 minute film, so a full novel will be missing many elements (see Davinci's Code...the film was horrible and made little sense unless you read the book) I thought this film (BofC) was brilliant as a stand alone piece. Why? It was a thought provoking tragedy, which focused on the darkly comedic side of tragedy...

This is a very odd Comedy, that has it's up's and downs, with a decent story, and very good performances, however it's not for everyone. All the characters are decent, and some scenes were very wacky, plus Bruce Willis is simply amazing in this!. Omar Epps is a riot as the obsessed fan of Dwayne Hoover, and Willis is extremely OTT but very funny, plus it's decently made and written. I bought this at a VHS blowout sale for 1$ because I'm a huge fan of Bruce Willis, and well it wasn't quite as funny as I thought it was going to be I wasn't sorry I watched it, and the ending was very well done, plus Nick Nolte especially made me laugh with his bizarre yet very funny performance. I still don't quite know how I feel about this film on a whole, I mean I did laugh a number of times, but I just felt it could have been better, that being said it was still a decent watch, and I loved it when Bruce went all crazy in the finale and started causing hell, plus this has to be one of the wackiest Comidies I have seen. This is a very odd Comedy, that has it's up 's and down, with a decent story, and very good performances, however it's not for everyone, worth the watch. The Direction is decent. Alan Rudolph does a decent job here with not too bad camera work, OK angles and keeping the film amusing and at a fairly fast pace. The Acting is very good. Bruce Willis is amazing as always and is amazing here, he gives an extremely OTT but hilarious performance, as he was always paranoid and acting weird, it was really cool to see him play a different character like this, and he pulled it off with perfection, this is one of my favorite performances he has given! (Willis Rules!!!!!!!!). Albert Finney is very good in his role, he had a cool character I liked him. Nick Nolte is bizarre but very good here, he cracked me up often, and also played a type of character I Hadn't seen him play before, I loved him!. Barbara Hershey is very pretty and did well with what she had to do I liked her. Glenne Headly is good as Francie and did her job well. Lukas Haas is OK as the son, and did his job adequately. Omar Epps stole a lot of the scenes as the obsessed fan of Dwayne Hoover with a similar name, it was especially hilarious when he started cooking food on a Car's engine, I loved his performance!. Vicki Lewis, Will Patton, Owen Wilson,Shawnee Smith and Michael Clarke Duncan all do what they have to do well. Rest of the cast are fine. Overall worth the watch. **1/2 out of 5 (almost ***)

I thing there is a popular misconception that Vonnegut's novel cannot be adapt to the big screen, I disagree, If you look at films like Mother Night or Slaughter House 5, it shows that with a little effort and care a Vonnegut film can be done perfectly. I think the problem that most filmmakers have is that they try to "reinvision" his work and this always leads to failure. This is the case with Breakfast of Champions a movie that veers so far of the course that you wonder if anyone involved read the book The casting is perfect, Bruce Willis and Albert Finney as Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout are dead on perfect but all the whimsey and humor are gone this is suppose to be a story of two men on an journey but this film just turns it into a bad comedy about a used car salesmen *Spoiler and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Dwaynes wife being dead a huge plot point in the book, and here she's alive and kicking whats that all about my advise to all filmmakers attempting to do Vonnegut, or any novel, Respect the source material

This movie is the worst film I'we ever seen. I tried to see it three times but fell asleep EVERY TIME (so you can't blame me for trying). I did this to try to understand this film and maybe find the hidden wisdom behind it all. Needless to say, I never found it. This movie tries to be crazy, smart and innovative but ends up to be unbelievable boring and idiotic. The movie is a waste of money and talent. I consider "Barfly" being a smart movie, "Eternal sunshine of a spotless movie" a crazy movie and "Fight club" an innovative movie, "Breakfast of champions" didn't live up to any of these good qualities. If you are planning to rent this movie, read a book instead.